Just Finished Reading
Managed to get some reading done - it was a cold weekend for a change so a curl up in the chair was much appreciated.
Finished off:
The Corrector, Kim Hunt (2026 Ngaio's)
What Rhymes with Murder by Penny Tangey
Started on:
This listing shows posts that went onto AustCrimeFiction.org in the last 14 days. Sorted into post type groups - Blogs (Updates), Books, Reviews.
Thursday Temptations
This temptations is upcoming releases, or books that are out now.
Friday Update: The Reading Queue (19th June)
I missed posting the last couple of Friday updates due to other unplanned commitments, and given we had a long weekend somewhere in there as well, there's been quite a bit of movement in this list.
#JustFinished
Thursday Temptations
This temptations is upcoming releases, one young adult, one that's a science fiction / mystery crossover.
EVERYTHING YOU KNOW ABOUT HER IS WRONG
In kidnapping cases, the first few hours are crucial. After that, the chances of being found alive go from slim to nearly none. Alex Prévost - beautiful, resourceful, tough - may be no ordinary victim, but her time is running out.
Commandant Camille Verhoeven and his detectives have nothing to go on: no suspect, no lead, rapidly diminishing hope. All they know is that a girl was snatched off the streets of Paris and bundled into a white van.
THE NOVELIST KILLS BY THE BOOK
For Commandant Camille Verhœven life is beautiful. He is happily married and soon to become a father.
HE'S ALWAYS ONE CHAPTER AHEAD
But his blissful existence is punctured by a murder of unprecedented savagery. When his team discovers that the killer has form - and each murder is a homage to a classic crime novel - the Parisian press are quick to coin a nickname . . . The Novelist.
HE HATES HAPPY ENDINGS
Tough and gutsy PI Lou Alcott returns with a terrifyingly gritty new case that takes her deep into the dark web. Perfect for fans of Jacqueline Bublitz and Jane Caro.
While juggling a missing person case with unexpected ties close to home and saving an innocent woman and her child from a dangerous domestic situation, Lou ends up in the line of fire of a mysterious dark-web hate group, known only as SYB.
A deadly bushfire. A web of lies. A desperate mother with everything to lose.
Amid a fatal Australian bushfire, a young mother and baby vanish, presumed dead.
The only person who knows the truth has spent fifteen years in prison for their murder.
But now Jake Evans is out, and he will stop at nothing for revenge.
Two thousand kilometres away, in the tiny outback town of Saltbush, Bella is raising her teenage daughter, Tilly. Here, no one knows of her past or the horrors of that fateful fire.
Gone Guru is a cosy mystery that punctures the writing bubble with a sharp pen and an even sharper look at an industry often accused of peddling unrealistic dreams.
Noni Barlow is broke, jet-lagged and alone in New York with nothing but a dream and a manuscript.
When her idol Joyce Carol Oates tells her that Born Again memoirs are so 'last year', Noni's big break starts to feel like a big mistake.
Once a victim, she's now a vigilante. An addictive and suspenseful thriller for readers of Candice Fox and Sarah Bailey.
Lexi Winter is tough, street-smart and has stood on her own two feet since childhood, when she was a victim of notorious paedophile the Spider. All she cares about now is a roof over her head and her long-term relationship with Jack Daniels. She isn't particular about who she sleeps with ... as long as they pay before leaving.
The explosive new crime novel from the bestselling author of The Call
A year after a brutal shootout, ex-police sergeant Honey Chalmers is a hot mess, drinking too much and eating too little, working casual gigs for a shady firm of private investigators — while holding conversations with a ghost.
When the motive is revenge, murder is not enough.
Disgraced journalist Xander McAuslan and his Vietnam veteran and erstwhile cave-dwelling survivalist mate Lorenzo are in grave danger - a situation exacerbated by the fact that they have no idea their recent past is about to catch up with them.
Welcome to Possible Springs, where secrets are a way of life.
Jimny Adams should have died on that hot summer day in 1987 in the remote town of Possible Springs. Only eleven at the time, she was saved from drowning by her school teacher Mr Cross.
Seven years on and she has grown into a watchful, quirky eighteen-year-old - her near-death experience having left her with an unnerving psychic ability.
Nightwalking is the tale of some Queensland Boomers and their offspring developing from childhood to adulthood and maturity.
They experience triumphs and tragedies, mistakes and moments of joy, jealousies, delightful sexual exploration and outcomes, some wonderful, some horrifying. Their actions lead to successful careers or terrible crimes, and the efforts of the detectives who are tasked with solving the mysteries.
Jack Dunne will do anything to save his son.
A violent civil war. An unstoppable enemy. One road to freedom.
In the wake of a global conflict, foreign forces occupy part of Australia, quashing all but a few pockets of local resistance. The tense stalemate ends in 2034, when Jack Dunne reignites the war.
Dunne is an Outrider, one of the last elite special operations soldiers in the Resistance. As the enemy prepare to eliminate the freedom fighters once and for all, he is tasked with his final mission.
A provocative question. A community on edge. A murder waiting to happen.
After a violent confrontation with the man next door, Dove paints a daring question on the front wall of her Sunshine Coast hinterland farm: ‘What would you do if you had a whole day on earth free of men?’
What Rhymes With Murder?, Penny Tangey
Featuring new mother Frida, WHAT RHYMES WITH MURDER? is a cosy, baby focused story about a body in a library, with a bit of social commentary along the way.
High Rise, Gabriel Bergmoser
I tend not to read blurbs on books before I dive in, particularly if the book is by a favourite author who does dark, dirty and high adrenaline as well as Bergmoser does. So I was somewhat pleased to see these lines in the blurb when I went to write this review:
Think: Die Hard meets The Raid, but the funnier, grittier Australian version. Fast, furious and ferocious, this is thriller writing at its nail-biting, unputdownable best.
God's Away on Business, Adrian McKinty
An audio short story (1 hour and 39 minutes in length), this is tagged as "Sean Duffy Year 1", taking the reader back to the time when newly promoted DS Sean Duffy is given his first command at Carrickfergus CID. For followers of the entire series this short, sharp belt to the head of a story will give you plenty of background to the ongoing battleground - how he ended up at Carrickfergus, a Catholic cop living in a mostly Protestant housing estate, spending his days chasing criminals and his morning's checking under his car for bomb switches.
Like, Follow, Die by Ashley Kalagian Blunt
Ashley Kalagian Blunt continues her exploration of the perils of malicious online communities in Like, Follow, Die.
The Nowhere Boy, Anne Cleary
A child disappears in broad daylight—and no one sees a thing.
The Bunny Club, Blanche D'Alpuget
So I've had two separate attempts now at reading THE BUNNY CLUB and neither of them have been even slightly successful. The whole thing was just a bit too disjointed and weird for my liking.
AustCrime Update: end of June
I'm going with a change of style here because it feels like things need a bit of a refresh. In general, the animals have decided to co-operate, I now only have to drive an hour a week to get my mail, and all in all it sort of feels like life might be stabilising. Which I realise is tempting fate.